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552 detail 551 A PAIR OF 23-BORE BAVARIAN FLINTLOCK FOWLING-PIECES WITH FINELY ENGRAVED SILVER MOUNTS, BY ELFERDING, ONOLZBACH (ANSBACH), CIRCA 1725-30 each with barrel of Spanish form with three gilt lily marks and the maker’s gilt stamp, a paschal lamb with the letters “EL”, silver foresight, signed bevelled lock with engraved wavy linear borders and engraved with small leaf ornaments, carved moulded figured walnut full stock, the butt flattened along its underside, full silver mounts cast in low relief, the butt-plate and the trigger-guard each with chiselled acanthus finial, the butt-plate engraved with a bird-of-prey and with a trophy pendant from scrollwork, the side-plate flat and finely engraved with a pierced Laub und Bandelwerk pattern suspending a vacant oval and involving monsters’ heads at both ends, three faceted baluster-shaped ramrod-pipes, and shield-shaped escutcheons also of silver (one barrel re-blued, the locks each acid-cleaned, the fore-ends each chipped and extensively cracked, one ramrod-pipe detached, the ramrods each missing). 110.5 cm; 43 ½ in barrels (2) The maker’s stamps are not previously recorded. £2500-3000 552 A RARE 100-BORE GERMAN SMALL FLINTLOCK GUN FOR A BOY, CIRCA 1740 built on a fine late 16th century barrel removed from a French long wheel-lock pistol, the barrel of rounded and very slender tapering form with raised segmental mouldings at the breech, at the median and at the muzzle, the two sections each decorated with two finely chiselled framed panels filled with designs after Etienne Delaune, in low relief on a punched fish-roe ground (originally gilt), the rearmost panel involving a classical warrior dancing beneath a baldacchino and amid trophies, cornucopia and scrolls, the successive panel cut with a demon mask trailing a cornucopia from its mouth, the forward panels decorated with an espagnolette mask and a young male figure respectively, and the four panels linked over the remaining undecorated length of the barrel by a very narrow raised cabled line, with plain small lock with bevelled edges, early 18th century moulded figured walnut stock (the forward half of the fore-end missing, chipped on one side of the barrel tang), and plain gilt-brass mounts cast in low relief, comprising butt-plate, very slender scrolling bevelled side-plate, moulded trigger-guard and one ramrod-pipe (the other ramrod-pipes and the ramrod all missing). 61 cm; 24 in barrel 90.8 cm; 35 ¾ in overall £1000-1500 274